At this moment, Shiraishi Mori had already exhausted his strength. Faced with Abu's sudden, unannounced attack, all he could do was hope that his Koukaku was hard enough to block the blade.
But the scene of himself being pierced through never came.
Because someone moved faster than him.
It was the one who possessed Rinkaku—
Keiko.
The difference in speed between Rinkaku and Koukaku was displayed to the fullest in that instant.
Mother Keiko used the last of her strength and erupted with her fastest speed, all so she could stand in front of her son and take this fatal blow in his place!
The sharp Ninja Blade pierced Keiko's body without a doubt. The impact from the blade made her body jerk violently before she forcibly steadied herself.
With her back to Shiraishi Mori, she reached out with all her strength and tightly gripped the blade that had pierced her body.
Keiko turned her head to look at her son. There was no pain on her face, only deep reluctance and regret.
"Mori, I'm sorry. From here on, you'll have to walk the rest of the road alone."
Shiraishi Mori's pupils kept widening.
Bright red blood, a bloodstained Ninja Blade, and his mother smiling with guilt filling her eyes.
"No—"
Before he could say anything else, another figure rushed past him.
It was Shiraishi Ao.
He charged forward, swinging his thick Kagune and smashing it heavily toward the enemy.
"This is bad."
Abu immediately sensed something was wrong. He tried to pull back the Ninja Blade in his hand, only to find that he could not move it at all.
This mother whom he had pierced through had erupted with astonishing strength before her death. Even Abu could not match that power.
"Damn it."
He had no choice but to release the Ninja Blade.
But Shiraishi Ao's attack had already arrived!
The dark purple centipede tail swept across like an unstoppable greatsword and slammed viciously into Abu's body.
Only then did a bleak smile appear on the burned half of Shiraishi Ao's face.
At least, before leaving his son, he had bought him a sliver of hope.
But that smile quickly disappeared.
Because the enemy he had struck suddenly burst into a cloud of smoke, then turned into a log that shattered into countless wood chips beneath the overwhelming force of the Weihe!
"It was the Substitution Technique. What a shame."
Hidan, standing in the stands, spoke with considerable regret.
Simu's expression did not change in the slightest.
On the battlefield, Shiraishi Ao's expression swiftly turned to shock.
A figure emerged from the ground beneath his feet. It was Abu, who had silently used the Substitution Technique before concealing himself underground with Dochu Senko no Jutsu.
Like a venomous snake that had lain in wait for a long time, he finally bared his fangs at this moment.
The sharp Ninja Blade easily pierced Shiraishi Ao's abdomen.
Before Shiraishi Ao could retaliate, Abu burrowed back underground once more.
"Cough, cough."
Shiraishi Ao spat out a mouthful of blood and looked down.
A Kibaku Fuda stuck to the Ninja Blade was slowly burning.
Before his despairing eyes, the Kibaku Fuda transformed into terrifying flames and exploded with a deafening roar!
Boom!
The flames instantly swallowed everything.
Within the flickering firelight, Keiko struggled to open her mouth.
"Mori."
"Live."
"Take care of your sister."
Those three sentences had already exhausted all of Keiko's strength.
Not even the orange-red blaze could illuminate her deathly pale face. In the end, the hand she had extended still failed to touch Shiraishi Mori's cheek.
As Keiko's arm crashed heavily onto the ground, Shiraishi Mori fell to his knees and completely broke down.
"Wh-why?"
"Why did this happen?!"
He viciously clutched at his hair, his fingers pulling so hard that they tugged at his scalp.
His mother lay before him, her face full of regret. As for his father, he had been reduced to charred remains in the explosion.
He did not know why he had to endure such pain.
He was clearly just a small-time fisherman.
He only wanted to live his life well—to fish properly, care for his parents until their old age, and raise his younger sister. Was that wrong?
Smoke from the explosion spread through the air.
Shiraishi Mori knelt there, muttering to himself.
"You're too weak."
The words that man had spoken in the prison cell suddenly echoed through Shiraishi Mori's mind.
A trace of focus suddenly returned to his eyes. He slowly lowered his head and looked at his hands.
"Was I... too weak?"
He murmured the question.
"Humans have limits. Only by transcending humanity can one obtain greater power."
Another voice rang out. It was still that man.
Shiraishi Mori unconsciously parted his lips.
"Transcending... humanity?"
He looked at the black Koukaku covering his palms, then at the scarlet Rinkaku on Keiko's body.
Suddenly, his shoulders began to tremble. Between those shaking shoulders came an incomparably hoarse, low voice.
"Since humans have limits, then I... won't be human anymore."
"Since one Kagune isn't enough, then I'll have two. Three."
Shiraishi Mori raised his head, his eyes filled with crimson.
The smoke gradually dispersed, and Abu narrowed his eyes as he stared at the battlefield.
Though he had won through his extensive combat experience, his Chakra was nearly exhausted as well.
After killing that brat, he would have to retreat.
Still, this should be enough to intimidate the other monsters, shouldn't it?
His gaze swept across the entire arena.
Sure enough, the Ghouls who could still maintain their sanity were merely watching and had not rashly acted.
Only some Ghouls who had entered a berserk state continued attacking everywhere, slaughtering nobles.
The smoke created by the explosion slowly drifted apart.
Since he had just used a Ninja Blade wrapped with a Kibaku Fuda to set a trap and kill that Centipede Ghoul, he could only pull out a Kunai from his ninja tool pouch as a weapon.
Suddenly, the slowly fading smoke was violently split apart.
Two dark-red slashes appeared before Abu in the blink of an eye, swift as lightning.
Blood burst forth!
Though Abu had retreated the instant he noticed the attack, a diagonal cross-shaped wound still appeared across his chest from nowhere.
Bright red blood gushed out, exposing stark white bone to the air.
Too fast!
That was Abu's only thought. Faced with such speed, there was no way he could react.
Forget his current exhausted state—even at his peak, he would probably only be able to flee in panic.
Under the slashes, the smoke parted to either side like curtains being drawn before a play began.
An incredibly burly figure appeared.
Black exoskeleton completely engulfed the youth. Even his cheeks were covered by armor-like Koukaku, its dark red sheen flickering like blood. Only a pair of eyes, crimson to the extreme, remained visible.
Empowered by the Koukaku, his height had swelled to three or four meters—nearly twice a person's height.
Two scarlet, sickle-shaped limbs extended from the exoskeleton on his shoulders, their vivid red seeming ready to drip blood.
"What kind of monster is this guy?"
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